Manna’s Garden
About Manna’s Garden
Manna is one of the few soup kitchens in the United States that has an onsite garden. The purpose of the Manna Garden is multidimensional and it serves a number of different groups within our community. Primarily, the garden helps Manna be more self-sustaining and provides educational and nutritional benefits to the community. Produce harvested from our garden is distributed to our clients through the Manna Food Market and in prepared foods for our take-out meals. The garden also supplies instructional produce for Manna’s Culinary Program. The garden provides an excellent demonstration site for small plot biointensive growing methods. It's a place where community members gather to learn, volunteer, and spend time together.
In the 2023 growing season, we harvested over 1,800 pounds of fresh produce!
Volunteering
Volunteer workdays are also available to any community member interested in getting their hands dirty! The Manna Garden accepts volunteers during our weekly workdays on Thursdays from 9 AM-11 AM. When the weather becomes chilly, the hours move from 10 AM-12 PM. We do not have garden volunteer opportunities from December–April as the garden is closed for the winter.
Email us for more information.
Annual Garden Fundraiser!
Each year in May the Manna Garden hosts our Annual Plant Sale! We have a wide variety of vegetables and perennials for you to choose from.
Check our social media platforms and website in April to see what specific days our plant sale is happening this year!
The History of the Manna Garden
Manna's garden has grown significantly over the past 20 years.
It was originally designed as a labyrinth.
The garden was first created in collaboration with The Garden Project of Southwest Colorado.
We first installed a high tunnel to have a warm place to grow food!
Next we built a greenhouse to get the most out of each growing season.
Raised beds were added inside the greenhouse.
The construction of our greenhouse was complete!
Through the years, we have hosted consistent volunteer workdays in the garden, which has been instrumental in providing produce to our kitchen.
And painted a beautiful mural on the Northern side of the greenhouse.
With the help from the community...
our greenhouse was soon full of plants!
We had to bring in tables so we could have even more room to grow.
In 2023, we added raised beds and a gazebo in place of the labyrinth!
The raised beds allow us to grow even more produce!
The community pavilion was built in the Manna Garden as a multipurpose space.
All of the food we grow here feeds people in our community.
The Manna Garden is made to support our community in so many ways!